FRIDAY WRAP: Union victories, SBF defeats, Uber driver victories, 2050 target defeats, weight-loss drug victories, and glass cliff CEO defeats

LIVE from your ESG candy hangover, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at November 3rd Studios, featuring all your favorites: Ari the data queen, Jessie the Money Whisperer, and AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: Union victories, SBF defeats, Uber driver victories, 2050 target defeats, weight-loss drug victories, and glass cliff CEO defeats

Story of the Week (DR):

1. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty of all charges in ‘one of the biggest financial frauds in American history’ JS AB

1. A jury found SBF guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in his criminal trial in Manhattan federal court after deliberating for about four and a half hours on Thursday.

2. Bankman-Fried faces up to 110 years in prison for the charges. His sentencing is tentatively scheduled for March 28 of next year.

2. UAW reaches deal with GM, ending strike against Detroit automakers AB

1. GM is the final Detroit automaker to reach a deal with the union; Ford Motor was the first last Wednesday, followed by a deal with Stellantis on Saturday.

2. The headline economics of the deals, such as 25% wage increases, were patterned off of Ford’s initial deal.

1. The raises and benefits cumulatively boost the top wage to more than $40 an hour, including an increase of 68% for starting wages to over $28 an hour, the union said of Ford and Stellantis deals.

2. Those deals also reinstated cost-of-living adjustments, reduced an eight-year path to top wages to three years and allowed the right to strike over plant closures, among other significantly enhanced benefits.

3. The strikes have collectively cost GM, Ford and Stellantis billions of dollars in lost production. Ford said Thursday that the union’s strike has cost it $1.3 billion and the deal, if ratified by members, would increase labor costs by roughly $850 to $900 per vehicle produced.GM said Tuesday the strike had cost it about $800 million.

4. ‘A tipping point’ in equal pay: Automakers are scrapping tiered wages

1. Ford Motor Co., GM and Stellantis — are poised to become the latest U.S. corporations to do away with tiered wage arrangements, a system that splits the workforce into haves and have-nots by confining newer employees to lower wages.

2. Earlier this year, UPS narrowly averted a strike by agreeing to equalize pay for its drivers. Lower-tier drivers were reclassified as regular drivers, lifting their starting hourly pay from $20.50 to $23.

3. The water treatment company Culligan, Boeing, Harley-Davidson and Caterpillar have also recently done away with tiered wage structures at the urging of workers’ unions.

5. UAW gears up to organize Toyota, other nonunion automakers

3. The ‘biggest threat to global order since the 1930s’ is underway and every CEO is talking about it

1. “This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement that accompanied the bank’s recent earnings release.

2. The bank CEO isn’t the only corporate leader growing more worried about geopolitics, according to Frederick Kempe, CEO of the Atlantic Council. Kempe said that many CEOs he talks with are increasingly worried about China, Russia and the Middle East. “Geopolitics is coming into the boardroom in a way it hasn’t in my lifetime.”

1. Billionaire Ackman Calls On Harvard To Suspend Students Who Allegedly Removed Jewish Student From Protest

2. Reid Hoffman Political Adviser: Progressive Rep. Tlaib Deserves Primary Challenge For Controversial Israel Comments. And Cori Bush (Missouri)

4. HBO's CEO [Casey Bloys] admits he used fake Twitter accounts, including one of a vegan Texas mom named Kelly, to troll critics who left negative reviews

1. Bloys' trolling behavior — which he says resulted in six tweets in a 1.5-year period — was "a very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration" while "working from home and doing an unhealthy amount of scrolling through Twitter" in 2020 and 2021, he said, per Variety.

2. Bloys' admission comes after Rolling Stone on Wednesday published an article about a wrongful-termination lawsuit against Bloys and HBO brought by a former employee, Sully Temori, who said he was tasked with creating the fake accounts

3. One of the troll accounts was created in the name of a fake Texas mom named Kelly Shepherd, whose bio describes her (ahem, Bloys) as a vegan, aromatherapist, and herbalist.

1. In one tweet, New York Times chief TV critic James Poniewozik said Joss Whedon's sci-fi drama series "The Nevers" "feels like watching a show that someone has mysteriously deleted 25% of the scenes from."

2. Bloys-slash-Shepherd responded: "how shocking that two middle aged white men (you & Hale) are shitting on a show about women," referring also to Times TV critic Mike Hale.

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. Uber and Lyft will pay New York $328 million to settle wage theft allegations

1. Did you drive for Uber or Lyft between 2014 and 2017? You can check if you are eligible for a payout! 

2. NY AG Letitia James announced yesterday that Uber and Lyft will pay a $328 million dollar settlement for stealing drivers’ pay, by deducting sales taxes, black car fees, and “administrative charge”. This should all have been paid for by the riders. 

3. Uber went the extra mile and led drivers to believe they were entitled to charge the rider for any tolls, however drivers did not have a way to charge for this!

4. The settlement also includes paid sick leave, an earnings floor, proper hiring and earnings notices etc

5. ⅔ of NY gig drivers actually do this full-time

2. BlackRock study finds companies with more women in workforce outperform rivals

1. This study looked at data from the last 10 years and found companies with a greater number of women in management, higher standard maternity policies, outperform companies who lag in this area by an average of 29% 

3. E-cigarette use declines among high school students, FDA and CDC say

1.  The 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey findings released yesterday showed that between 2022 and 2023 e-cigarette use among high school students declined from 14% to  10% (28% in 2019)

2.  The biggest culprit, Chinese brand Elf Bar, can still be found on shelves despite being banned by the FDA and is the most commonly reported brand at 56.7%

4. UAW MM DR JS

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. These people: Lightspeed Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Thoma Bravo, Third Point, VanEck, SoftBank Group, Circle Financial Group, Ribbit Capital, Altimeter Capital, Willoughby Capital, Hudson River Trading, Senator Investment Group, Multicoin Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Bond, Race Capital, Standard Investments, Paradigm, Sino Global Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Temasek Holdings, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Tiger Global Management, BlackRock, ICONIQ Capital, Sea Capital, Steadview Capital Management, SB Investment Advisers, Paradigm DR

1. These are the asshole firms who did literally zero due diligence - they were so founder fetished that they demanded no books or accounting at all and caved to whatever management said - and made this possible: Sam Bankman-Fried Is Found Guilty of 7 Counts of Fraud and Conspiracy

1. I’m 75% through Michael Lewis’s book, and I have no idea what the critics of Lewis’s portrayal are talking about - SBF is clearly a self involved narcissist and the worst kind of asshole.  He has an utter indifference to humanity that’s coupled with the deepest whitest malest privilege you can have - he’s Musk

2. The “effective altruism” thing is the least human, most heinous form of aspirational billionaire philanthropy - it’s destruction of the world and indifference to how you get your billions so that you can spend your billions on “effective altruism” cleaning up your mess

2. Every 2050 carbon target JS

1. In early 2029, Earth will likely lock into breaching key warming threshold, scientists calculate

2. Of the 2,868 company constituents of MSCI’s ACWI Index, 574 have set 2050 targets

3. Meanwhile, 1,297 have targets after 2029

4. CONGRATULATIONS IDIOT COMPANIES, WE’RE DEAD BY THE TIME YOU FIX THE PROBLEM

3. “Appointing directors” AB MM

1. I got all excited when the Winnebago proxy dropped last night, only to find out I missed this: Winnebago Industries Appoints Staci Kroon to Board of Directors

2. That announcement came on Oct 11, 2023.  The proxy dropped last night and the AGM is set for December 14 - so Staci gets to serve as a board member for a full 2 months before she even gets elected.  

3. Worse, she got put on the COMP committee AND the finance committee before she’s even elected - so she actually got to be a part of approving Michael Happe’s pay by sitting a committee with a chair who’s been there for 6 years and a member who’s been there for 4?

1. She got to vote on a 19% increase in CEO Michael Happe’s stock award pay!

2. Happe, by the way, managed to get his 2022 option award set at a strike price that was below market price!  It vests in 3 tranches, but it was granted on 10/12/22 at 56.09 - the closing price that day was 56.96!  The incentive is to do absolutely nothing interesting for three years to guarantee yourself 31,000 more shares!

4. The man directly responsible for the doxxing of college students across the country for having dumb opinions decrying the amplification of idiots

1. ‘Humanity is on a rapid path to oblivion’: Billionaire investor Bill Ackman urges Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk to stop amplifying hate for dollars 

2. Billionaire Ackman Calls On Harvard To Suspend Students Who Allegedly Removed Jewish Student From Protest

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. McDonald’s CEO says consumers suffering ‘difficult times’ can actually be a good thing for his business MM

1. Speaking during the McDonald’s Q3 2023 earnings call, CEO Chris Kempczinski said “it’s clear that consumers continue to be more discriminating about what and where they spend.”

2. However, Kempczinski continued “in difficult economic times [for consumers], the McDonald’s brand and our positioning on value is an opportunity for us.”

3. What he means is: when the economy sucks and everyone gets poorer except for CEOs, they all buy our cheap horrible food!  Opportunity!

4. HOW ABOUT INSTEAD WE SUBSIDIZE HEALTHY GROCERY STORE FOOD

2. Meanwhile… Novo Nordisk, Lilly see insatiable demand for weight-loss drugs DR

1. Because of inflation, we can’t afford food at the grocery store, so we opt for cheap, crappy McDonald’s…then you can watch your insurance premiums skyrocket when you beg for weight loss drugs to keep you from permanent diabetes!

2. All the while, lining the pockets of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly

3. WONDERFUL

3. Qantas burns through remaining goodwill as new CEO Vanessa Hudson sticks to Alan Joyce's old script AB JS

1. We’ve talked about Vanessa Hudson before- she took over for Alan Joyce and personally apologized for years of terrible behavior and decisions

2. She’s gone on the front foot, making all the right noises to aggrieved customers, staff and shareholders about resurrecting the airline's performance and reputation, building up some goodwill

3. However, Hudson opted to detonate that sliver of goodwill during the past week by lodging a flimsy, highly technical defense against the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's legal action alleging the airline sold thousands of tickets to unsuspecting customers on flights that had already been canceled.

4. Hudson and her embattled chairman Richard Goyder fronted an angry mob at the company's annual general meeting (AGM) in Melbourne's Convention and Exhibition Centre down on South Wharf on Friday, with more of the same rhetoric. There were vague admissions that they hadn't got everything right, general apologies and commitments to change for the better.

5. The mood in the AGM room deteriorated as Goyder tried to stifle questioning, particularly his decision to allow JOyce to sell $17 million worth of Qantas shares months before his departure

6. And while Hudson told investors the airline now was fast tracking ways to reimburse customers, there was no mention or apology for her part, in her previous role as chief financial officer, in the now junked decision to hold on to the funds and book them as profit.

7. Silver Lining: The AGM culminated in an 83 per cent vote against the airline's remuneration report — close to record discontent against a major ASX-listed firm — and an overwhelming first strike against its board.

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Nell Minow: “The Queen of Good Corporate Governance”

2. AB: Taylor Tomlinson

3. MM: As You Sow - subpoenaed by Jim Jordan for potential “anti trust violations” is a non profit that files a few proxies a year and begs investors to consider climate change!  Without a hint of irony!  Wear it as a badge of honor - an idiot thinks you’re a threat!

4. JS: 13 Victims get some justice…finally: Odey Asset Management to close after sexual assault allegations against founder

1. Crispin Odey has already been ousted from the business he founded in 1991

2. Odey Asset Management is to close five months after allegations of sexual assault and harassment against its founder, Crispin Odey, plunged one of London’s oldest hedge fund groups into crisis.

3. “My overriding reaction is one of hope,” said another of the women who accused Odey of sexual assault. “I pray not naive hope. The fact that his demise, once it started, was so swift and clear, does give me hope that attitudes are changing and that women might start to believe that they can speak up.”

Predictions

1. DR: After UAW successfully unionizes more non-union car companies, we’re about to be flooded with 10,000 horrible Elon Musk headlines on why unions are evil

2. AB: Tesla will unionize

3. MM: Free Float’s new proxy-driven show on the alternative democracy is a massive hit, and in anticipation of that, a sponsor emerges to be our key partner in delivering literally the best and only proxy recommendation show in the history of shows.

4. JS: